1. Learning Flashcards
What is learning?
A process by which experience produces a relatively enduring change in an organism’s behaviour or capabilities
Learning can be ‘overt’ or ‘covert’, what do these words mean?
- Overt - behavioural
* Covert - cognitive
What is non-associative learning?
Response to repeated stimuli (all animals do this)
What is classical conditioning?
Learning the association between the events and what they signal
What is operant conditioning?
Leaning that doing one thing leads to another (consequences of behaviours)
What is observational learning?
Learning from others (or by noting consequences of a person’s actions)
What is habituation?
Decrease in the strength of a response to repeated stimulus
What is sensitisation?
Increase in the strength of response to a repeated stimulus
What is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)?
A stimulus that elicits a reflexive or innate response (UCR) without prior learning
What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?
A stimulus that, through association with a UCS, comes to elicit a conditioned response similar to the original UCR
Outline what Pavlov’s dogs showed?
Example of conditioning a stimulus
- The CS (bell) didn’t lead to any response
- The UCS (food) resulted in a innate response
- Over time, if the bell is paired with the food enough times, the dog will salivate just from hearing the bell
When is classical conditioning strongest?
- Repeated CS-UCS pairings
- The UCS is more intense
- Sequence involves forward paring (CS => UCS or bell => food)
- Short time interval between CS and UCS
What happens if a response is conditioned for a CS with a UCS, but the UCS is then removed?
- The CR starts to become reduced i.e. if the bell is presented without the food, the strength of the response (CR - implied salivation) is lower
- Response is not fully extinguished - will reactivate more readily than originally
What is stimulus generalisation?
- Tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar, but not identical, to a conditioned stimulus
- Similar stimuli also elicit the CR, but in a weaker form
- Exploited in advertising and branding
What is stimulus discrimination?
- Ability to respond differently to various stimuli
- e.g. child will respond differently to various bells, or a fear of a certain breed of dogs
- Using models and celebrities in advertising exploits this concept
What type of conditioning may explain anticipatory nausea and vomiting to chemotherapy?
- Classical conditioning
- Expectation (norm): Chemotherapy (UCS) => Nausea (UCR)
- Result: sight of chemotherapy unit (CS) => anticipatory nausea (CR)
What physiological effect does anticipation to chemotherapy have and how was this tested?
- Samples of patients taken at home and hospital prior to chemotherapy
- Patients had their NK cell activity measured
- Chemotherapy normally suppresses the immune system
- Classical conditioning caused an anticipatory immune decline at the hospital before chemotherapy
How was ‘overshadowing’ demonstrated in changing the effect of anticipatory nausea to chemotherapy?
- Cancer patients experiencing anticipatory nausea were divided into 2 groups
- G1 was given an unpleasant, novel drink
- G2 was given water, not novel
- Patients with the ‘novel drink’ showed reduced anticipatory nausea when coming to the clinic setting
- This altered CS is an example of overshadowing
Show how a rat (neutral stimulus) and a loud noise (UCS) can be conditioned for the rat to evoke crying
Before conditioning
• Rat (neutral) => no response
• Loud noise (US) => crying (UR)
During conditioning
• Rat (neutral) + loud noise (US) => crying (UR)
After conditioning
• Rat (CS) => crying (CR)
Show how a traumatic injection can lead to a fear of the clinical setting?
- Trauma (UCS) => Fear (UCR)
- Trauma (UCS) + Needle (neutral) => Fear (UCR)
- Needle (CS) => Fear (CR)
- Clinical setting (CS) => Fear (CR)
Use the fear of needles to show what the ‘two-factor theory of maintenance of classically conditioned associations’ is?
- By avoiding injections, you remove the aversive stimulus and the response of fear
- Negative reinforcement/operant conditioning - response strengthened by avoiding an aversive stimulus
- Stimulus of needle has been removed => tendency to avoid it increases
What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect?
- A response followed by a satisfying consequence will be more likely to occur
- A response followed by an aversive consequence will become less likely to occur
What is positive reinforcement?
Response is strengthened by the subsequent presentation of a reinforcer e.g. teaching dogs tricks using food
What are primary and secondary reinforcers?
- Primary - those needed for survival e.g. food, water, sleep
- Secondary - stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties through their association with primary reinforcers e.g. money, praise
What is negative reinforcement?
Response is strengthened by the removal/avoidance of a an aversive stimulus e.g. the use of painkillers are reinforced by avoiding pain, or drying hands to avoid wet hands
What is positive punishment?
- Response is weakened by the presentation of a stimulus
* e.g. squirting a cat with water when it jumps on the table
What is negative punishment?
- Response is weakened by the removal of a stimulus
* e.g. phone confiscated
Does reinforcement or punishment have a more potent influence on behaviour?
- Reinforcement i.e. increasing response by presenting/avoiding stimulus
- Largely becomes punishment can only make certain response less frequent - you can’t teach new behaviour
What is resistance to extinction?
The degree to which non-reinforced responses persist
Does continuous or partial reinforcement produce more rapid learning?
Continuous reinforcement
Does continuous or partial reinforcement extinguish more rapidly?
Continuous reinforcement
What is a fixed interval schedule?
Reinforcement occurs after a fixed time interval
What is a variable interval schedule?
Reinforcement occurs after a time interval, which varies at random around an average
What if a fixed ratio schedule?
Reinforcement is given after a fixed number of responses
What is a variable ration schedule?
Reinforcement is given after a variable number of responses, all centred around an average
How can we inadvertently delay patients’ recovery by how we respond to pain behaviour?
- Chronic pain behaviour includes limping, grimacing etc.
- This is often reinforced by family or staff e.g. being overly sympathetic, encouraging rest etc.
- Also reinforced by gratitude signals from the patient
- Cycle in which patient receives positive consequences for being in pain
What does the cognitive approach to learning suggest about the effect of social imitation?
Social imitation may short-cut the acquisition of new behaviours without the necessity of reinforcing
What is vicarious reinforcement?
We tend to imitate behaviours, that are being reinforced
Outline the Bobo Doll experiment
- Children recruited
- Spent time in a playroom with an adult who modelled either non-aggressive (building toy) or aggressive play (punching the Bobo doll)
- Groups then spent a further 20 minutes alone
- Children who observed aggressive behaviour showed a much higher level of aggression towards to doll
What kind of people are we more likely to imitate the behaviour of?
If the model is: • Seen to be rewarded • High status • Similar to us (e.g. colleagues) • Friendly
What are expert patients?
- A patient who talks about their experience to a group of newly diagnosed patients
- Selected for successfully managing their condition
- Role-model
